


Singularity

by tiersein



Category: Dinotopia - James Gurney
Genre: Gen, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-20
Updated: 2011-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-27 15:24:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/297291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiersein/pseuds/tiersein
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Sabertooth Falls in Waterfall City provide a magnificent backdrop for a young man's existential crisis. Warning for teen angst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Singularity

The city is quiet.

 _the rumbling is deeper than he'd expected, too powerful to comprehend._

Fourteen years he's been breathing the air.

 _the audacity..._

To think he can stand here on the rim of the grandest city in the world...

 _perhaps the universe_

...and dare to understand the nature of temerity.

 _determination_

"Write me a paper," his teacher had said.

 _the gravelly voice is only wrapping paper on a package of kindness_

"Tell me why you want to live."

 _just live? life, living, breathing... there's more to it than that, surely?_

"Tell me what makes your heart push against your chest."

 _sheer emotion_

He desperately wants to write the paper but he doesn't know the answer.

 _if he fails his teacher's eyes will be full of sadness, not understanding_

He grabs the edge of the railing and pushes back, pulls forward.

 _everyone's always understanding. like nothing he says can break the masks._

Feels the muscles in his arms.

 _rage in the face of placid plodding apatosaurs_

The wind picks up, ruffles through his shaggy hair and tugs at his loose sleeves.

 _dust in the wind will fly forever_

He wants to write about how it feels to be helpless.

 _he understands it is his body that needs to breathe_

How it feels to be alone.

 _he doesn't know what part of him needs this_

He wants to tell the world that he's not fourteen years old.

 _go to your room, young man_

For there, on the heights, he stands between the sabertooths.

 _how old are they, mom?_

Somehow he knows he has no right to be like this.

 _a thousand years old, boy_

He cannot accept that he has lived fourteen years.

 _skinned knees, birthday parties, dreidel games by the fountain_

When these statues have lived a thousand standing watch above the pounding mist.

 _how dare you embrace brilliance_

He can hear the water pounding and he understands what others cannot.

 _all alone in the dark with none but the world for company_

Above him the stars stretch forever, a billion suns above a city lit by candles.

 _he can manipulate words, understand people_

He looks down at his feet and his oversized hands and the skin into which he has yet to grow.

 _loneliness_

He wants to tell his teacher that he can reach out and touch the secrets of the universe.

 _why haven't you done your essay, young man?_

Because he can't find the words.


End file.
